Forgotten Joy
by dustyismahomeboy
Summary: CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS. What would happen if Joy and Bing Bong never made it out of the memory Dump? What would happen if Riley got depression and never came home? Rating may change over time.
1. Chapter 1

I came up with this idea last night and have been writing since then. I've wanted to do an Inside Out story for a while but couldn't think of anything to do. Here we are. **Contains huge spoilers. If you haven't seen the movie yet, do not read this story.**

 **I do not own Inside Out or any of the characters in this story.**

* * *

Joy fell to her knees, realizing the truth. They weren't going anywhere. Bing Bong was right. They couldn't get out of the Memory Dump no matter how hard they tried. Joy began to look at all the memories that lay before her, dark, grey, and awaiting to be forgotten. She picked up a sphere-shaped memory that had a dark, grey, and gloomy color. She let out a quick sigh as she tried to keep herself together.

"Do you remember how she used to stick her tongue out when she was coloring?" Another sigh. She felt the tears weld up in her eyes and a lump form in her throat, yet tried to blink and swallow them away as she picked up another.

"I could listen to her stories all day." She sniffed and picked up a third. She couldn't help but let out a weary sigh as she looked at them, blinking back tears.

"I just wanted Riley to be happy." She leaned for the other core memory that Sadness had created. "And now..." She couldn't help but be unable to fight her tears anymore. Without finishing the sentence, Joy wept, hugging the memories close to her until they slipped away from her arms, causing her to hug nothing but herself.

She allowed her tears to flow freely as she continued to sob. Her hands rested on her eyes as she wept, feeling nothing but sorrow at that moment. She looked up for a brief moment as she dried her tears, and spotted a memory at her knees. She picked it up and tried to wipe away a tear that had fallen on it, only she rewound what had happened in the happy memory and it turned blue instead of yellow. It showed Riley sitting on a tree branch with her parents by her side. She moved her fingers back over it again and watched Riley's parents walk backwards away, showing Riley had been at the tree alone at first. She let the memory play on again, watching her parents climb onto the branch and comfort Riley. She remembered how Sadness talked about Riley missing the winning shot and how she wanted to quit. Joy forwarded the memory to where the sphere turned bright yellow again and Riley was accompanied and swarmed in by her friends and teammates. They lifted Riley to the sky and laughed, cheering her on.

"Sadness. Mom and dad, they came, they came to help because of Sadness." Joy understood now. Sadness was important, and she had to get back to her immediately. She stood and packaged the memory back into the sac. "We have to get back up there." She said to Bing Bong, who was already looking down.

"Joy, we're stuck down here." Bing bong replied. "We mine as well be on another planet."

Joy looked down as another memory faded away behind her. She suddenly had an idea and her face lit up.

"Another planet?" She repeated, and turned around. "Who's your friend who likes to play?" She called out.

Bing Bong's eyes widened immediately, realizing what Joy was doing.

"Who's your friend who likes to play?" She called louder.

"Who's rocket makes you yell hurray?" Bing Bong chimed in. A worn out tune played in the distance. They both looked at each other and began to run, yelling out the song.

"Who's the best in every way and loves to sing the song to say? Who's your friend who likes to play? Bing Bong Bing Bong!" Bing Bong sang out, seeing the rocket wagon's light far off.

Joy helped him unbury the rocket from the old memories so they could ride off to freedom. She helped lift it up so they could get in when the handle began to slowly fade.

* * *

So this actually was a few pages in my notebook but I guess it was that freaking large paragraph up there. Hope everyone has a great day and there's more to come along with my other stories.


	2. Chapter 2

Joy noticed right away.

"Hurry!" She cried out. not having a handle would be hard to steer but she had to try. They yelled the song louder as the rocket propelled forwards by a rainbow at the ends of the brooms. Joy looked down and gasped at the front of the wagon that was now disappearing as well.

"Louder!" Bing Bong yelled and sang out louder as the wagon went forwards the ramp above. Joy sang so loud she felt her throat becoming hoarse. They hadn't realized though that as they rolled up the steep hill of memories to the ramp, a front wheel was disappearing. They fell backwards, not having enough upward thrust, and tumbled back down to ground.

"Come on!" Joy said and picked herself up. She ran to the wagon and noticed the tire was completely gone.

"No.." The second front tire began to disappear. "What are we gonna do?"

Bing Bong looked at it. "I suppose we can try to keep the front up, but I don't know if that would work.

"Well, we have to try." Joy climbed in, followed by Bing Bong, and grabbed hold of the front. Bing Bong helped and together they both lifted up the front end. "Who's your friend who likes to play? Bing Bong Bing Bong!" Joy sang out and the rocket moved forwards, but it was very bumpy.

"Who's rocket makes you yell hurray? Bing Bong Bing Bong!" Bing Bong sang along. It was at that moment where the rocket tripped over the memories and they both tumbled forwards. The rocket itself began to disappear.

"No!" Joy cried out as she watched in horror. The wagon disappeared from their sight.

"What are we gonna do?" Joy asked.

"I'm afraid there's not much we can do now." Bing Bong replied sadly. He looked down and noticed his lower half slowly disappearing. Joy noticed as well.

"No.. you can't go..." Joy said softly, looking up at him.

"I'm sorry.." Bing Bong stretched out his arms and Joy ran to him for a hug. She tried not to cry again when soon all she could feel was air.

She looked up, tears welling in her eyes again as she saw nothing. He was gone. Forgotten. She looked around the dark area, alone. She wasn't quite sure why she hasn't disappeared yet, but dared not to think about it. She fell to the ground again, surrounded by the memories, and waited to be forgotten.

* * *

Riley's mother walked into the house.

"We're home! Riley? Riley!" She looked up the stairs then back at Riley's father. He opened the door to Riley's room, and saw nothing. She wasn't there!

"I'll call her cell." Riley's mom said, beginning to type on her phone.

Meanwhile, Riley walked down the sidewalk heading to the bus station.

"Oh, this is terrible.." Fear said under his breath. "Wait, is that someone walking towards us?L-l-let's cross the street."

Suddenly, Riley's phone began to ring. She looked at it and saw it was her mom.

Fear let out a gasp. "Mom! She's onto us!" He began to pace nervously.

"What do we do?" Disgust asked as Fear took out a paper bag and began to breath into it.

"Riley needs to get core memories. We keep going." Anger said as he moved the two knobs forwards on the console. Riley declined the call. At that moment, family island began to crumble. Riley looked both ways before crossing the street to the bus stop where a bus had just pulled in.

Riley purchased a ticket using her mothers' card and went to stand in line to get on the bus. Her phone began to ring suddenly and it was her mom again.

"Oh no, it's mom again." Disgust said, concern filling her voice as Fear blew into his bag more rapidly. "What do we do?"

"Uh.." Anger stuttered. Riley this time turned off her phone and declined. Family island began to shake and crumble more. Pieces of it began to fall into The Dump.

"This is madness! We shouldn't run away!" Anger cried out as Fear popped his bag.

"Let's get this idea out of her head!" Disgust said and tried to grab and pull it out.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sadness ran back into Imagination Land to be by herself and get away. Riley didn't need her anymore was all she thought. She flew off on a cloud, crying.

* * *

Anger tried himself to get the idea out, but to no avail.

"It's stuck!" He yelled.

"Oh, great!" Disgust scoffed.

"What do you mean, 'it's stuck'?" Fear asked.

"Now what?" Disgust asked. But before anyone could answer, the console began to turn black.

"No no no no no! What is this?" Fear cried out.

Riley boarded the bus as Anger threw a chair at the console by the idea. Fear ran over with a crowbar but only ended up hitting himself with it. Riley searched for a seat.

"How do we stop it?" Fear asked, terrified.

"I got it! Make her feel scared! That'll make her change her mind!" Disgust suggested.

"Brilliant!" Fear said and jumped to the console. He began to push buttons and moved levers.

"I know it's brilliant, do it!" She said.

"Agh! Nothing's working! What? Why isn't it working?"

Anger pushed him out of the way. "Lemme try!"

"Wait, you broke it!" Disgust yelled. All three began to hurriedly push buttons as Riley took a seat.

"Guys, we can't make Riley feel anything..." Fear said gently, realizing partly what was going on.

"What have we done..?" Anger asked softly.

"Oh, I wish Joy was here!" Fear said.

The bus began to leave the station as Riley looked out the window with no emotion.

The three emotions looked at the console as it finished what it intended to do. It turned all black.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry for the late update guys! I've been pretty busy lately with my driving class and life, but my class is over now so I should be writing a lot more now.

 ** _Trigger warning!_**

* * *

The bus began onto the highway entrance ramp.

Mr. and Mrs. Andersen crowded around the table, Mrs. Andersen on the phone with riley's teacher.

"Alright, thank you. We will." She hung up. "Her teacher hasn't even seen her all day!"

"What?" Mr. Andersen exclaimed.

"What was she wearing last?"

"I can't believe it.."

"Do you remember what she was wearing?"

"Uh, I think a black sweatshirt and pants?"

"We need to make out lost signs! And get the police involved!"

* * *

Riley stared out the window at the signs that passed by on the highway.

"Oh, it's too late! Even if we did manage to get that idea out, the bus driver can't just let her off on the highway!" Fear said.

"And, wait a sec, what will we do when we do make it to Minnesota? It's not like we can live in our old house again by ourselves!" Disgust added.

"We'll just have to see when we get there.." Anger said.

"Maybe one of Riley's old friends could help her!" Fear said.

"But how will we get Riley to them?" Disgust asked.

"I don't know." Anger said. "Maybe they'll come to her."

It began to get darker. Riley still stared out the window of the bus, not seeming to be tired. Fear had been shaking for the past hour, nervously glancing out the windows of headquarter every few minutes.

"I can't seem to calm down!" He cried out. "All of this is going to end up _really_ bad!"

"Don't even dare talk about your 'nerves' again." Disgust scoffed. "We need to find a way to get Sadness and Joy back."

"And how do you suggest we do that? There's no way out there, we lost the Train of Thought! Joy and Sadness could be anywhere out there." Anger said. "For now, we're stuck.

"Well, we could always try and contact some Mind-" Disgust got cut off as Riley closed her eyes and fell asleep. The screen in front went black.

"Oh, no!" Fear jumped up and ran to the console. "I'm afraid of what dreams they're gonna play tonight!"

"If they play any." Anger said. "Everyone down there must still be recovering over Riley running away."

The three emotions stayed at the console and watched the screen, neither wanting to go to bed in fear something down there had in fact gone wrong.

A few minutes passed and the screen showed Riley in first person looking over a large, vast, barren land.

"Oh, this doesn't seem too bad..." Fear commented. Riley took a few steps forwards and the camera suddenly looked downwards, showing Riley standing over a tall cliff.

Fear gasped and his hands began to shake. He nearly threw himself on the console, pressing buttons and forgetting he couldn't do anything about the dream or Riley. Realizing this, he fell back, but covered his face with his hands.

Riley stepped closer to the edge, and jumped off.

* * *

It's like 4 in the morning, and I've been working on this chapter for about 3 days because I really wanted to get it accurate. Sorry it's so short! The next one will be longer I promise!


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